Madras High Court quashes 2018 case booked against journalist Nakkheeran Gopal for allegedly “overawing” Governor

Madras HC quashes case vs journo Gopal & others for articles on TN Governor; rules journalists entitled to expose wrongs & can't be prosecuted for doing job. Judge holds Section 124 of IPC not attracted & no materials to prove Governor couldn't exercise constitutional duties due to articles.

The Madras High Court has quashed a 2018 case booked against journalist Nakkheeran Gopal and a few others under Section 124 (assaulting or overawing President/Governor with intent to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power) of the Indian Penal Code for having published articles related to the then Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit and tutor Nirmala Devi accused of trafficking college girls.

Justice V. Sivagnanam quashed the entire proceedings pending before a Metropolitan Magistrate at Egmore in Chennai after holding that Section 124 would not get attracted at all. He agreed with petitioners’ counsel P.T. Perumal that the articles were related to misuse of the name of the Governor’s office by others and in no way insinuated that the then Governor was involved in any unsavoury activity.

The judge wrote that journalists were entitled to expose wrongdoings and bring them to public knowledge. They could not be prosecuted for doing their job. He further ruled that the offences under Sections 505 (i)(b) (inducing a person to commit an offence against the State) and 506(i) (criminal intimidation) of the IPC were also not made out against the quash petitioners before the court.

Pointing out that the police complaint lodged by a Raj Bhavan official did not contain any averment with respect to the Governor having read the articles and that there were no materials to prove that he could not execise his constitutional duties because of the articles, the judge wrote: “Since no ingredients of the alleged offences are made out... it would be unjust to allow the criminal proceedings to be continued against the petitioners.”

After the registration of the case on the basis of the complaint lodged by Governor’s Deputy Secretary T. Sengottaiyan, the Greater Chennai police had arrested Mr. Gopal on October 9, 2018 at the Chennai airport after he had cleared security check and was waiting to board a flight to Pune. However, Metropolitan Magistrate K. Gopinath refused to remand him to judicial custody after soliciting the views of veteral jouranlist N. Ram who was present in the court hall.

Then, Mr. Ram had told the Magistrate that Section 124 of the IPC would not get attracted at all and that allowing such a practice would set a bad precedent. Subsequently, in January 2019, Justice N. Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court dismissed a State appeal against the Magistrate’s refusal to remand and observed that there was nothing wrong on the part of the Magistrate in having sought the views of Mr. Ram before taking a call on the issue.